Posted
by
timothyon Saturday October 22, 2011 @08:28AM
from the james-cameron-needs-to-get-on-this dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "DARPA reports that more than $300 billion worth of satellites are in the geosynchronous orbit, many retired due to failure of one component even if 90% of the satellite works just as well as the day it was launched. DARPA's Phoenix program seeks to develop technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components such as antennas or solar arrays from retired, nonworking satellites in GEO and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost. However, satellites in GEO are not designed to be disassembled or repaired, so it's not a matter of simply removing some nuts and bolts, says David Barnhart. 'This requires new remote imaging and robotics technology and special tools to grip, cut, and modify complex systems.' For a person operating such robotics, the complexity is similar to trying to assemble via remote control multiple Legos at the same time while looking through a telescope."

I think the lego analogy is oversimplified. They should have said it would be like building your own telvision via remote control while looking through a telescope. Legos "just fit". Diodes, resistors, etc, don't just snap together - and neither will all those parts form satellites launched by different companies, for different purposes, over the span of a few decades. Almost nothing is going to "just fit".

This sounds like one of those brilliant ideas on paper, but one that will prove infinitely harder in reality.

Remember that "R" in DARPA's name? It doesn't have to work. It just has to be something interesting from which one could learn something new. And I could see a whole lot of useful/interesting stuff coming out of even trying to do something like this.